A Year In the Life of drug education charity the DSM Foundation

Drug education charity the DSM Foundation has marked its achievements during the 2024-25 academic year at its Year In The Life event.

The online event, which took place on Tuesday October 15^th 2025, saw the release of the charity’s Year In The Life booklet, which describes the reach and impact of its wide range of drug education activities. There were also several speakers who described how they came across the DSM Foundation, worked with the charity in a variety of ways, and the effect their ongoing relationship has had for them and, in turn, the lives of the people they reach.

The Year In The Life booklet can be accessed here.

Click here to watch Stewart McLauchlan, Moray Council’s Quality Improvement Manager, provide a local authority’s perspective in just five minutes on how and why engaging with the DSM Foundation to provide drug education to young people, parents and caregivers, and school staff has been beneficial.

Click here to see Sandra Larmour, parent of Jeni Larmour who died after taking drugs as a fresher at Newcastle University, explain how and why she brought the DSM Foundation’s provision to Northern Ireland. This short film, which is five minutes 30 seconds, also features Hannah Reilly, co-founder and co-director of Ever Unique Productions, talking about how she found being part of a Theatre In Education tour of ‘I Love You, Mum – I Promise I Won’t Die’ in schools in the province, and how young people responded to the play that tells the story of 16 year old Daniel Spargo-Mabbs, for whom the Foundation is named, in the words of his family and friends.

Click here to view Penny Brown, group learning and leadership director at Benefact Group, describe how she brought the DSM Foundation’s drug education to young people in the early stages of their careers at the organisation she works for, how this fits into what a company can offer its employees, and how she has helped the charity develop its workplace offering so the benefits can be felt by ever more corporate partners.

Information for editors:

The DSM Foundation is a drug education charity established in 2014 following the death of 16 year old Daniel Spargo-Mabbs from an accidental overdose of ecstasy. His family felt that he simply hadn’t known enough to be able to make decisions that would keep him safe, and realized there was a huge gap in the resources and support available to schools, so set up the charity in order to spare other families going through what they had experienced.

The aim of the DSM Foundation is to provide young people with relevant, age-appropriate, up to date and evidence-based information about drugs so they develop the skills to make choices that will keep themselves and their friends as safe as possible. To this end, the charity is currently working in almost 750 schools, colleges and community organisations with children and young people, and also provides workshops for parents and caregivers, and training for school and college staff – the two groups shown by NHS survey data as the most likely sources of information about drugs and alcohol sought out by 11-15 year olds. Educational settings are also able to access “I Love You Mum, I Promise I Won’t Die”, a verbatim play by Mark Wheeller that was commissioned by the charity to tell Dan’s story in the words of his family and friends, through studying the work itself (sometimes due to it being a GCSE Drama set text on the Eduqas syllabus), or booking a Theatre in Education performance. Schools and colleges can also download age-appropriate, relevant, up to date and evidence-based drugs education lesson resources free of charge from the DSM Foundation website for delivery by teachers through PSHE/PSE provision.

For more information about the DSM Foundation, go to https://www.dsmfoundation.org.uk/.

Media enquiries about this press release or the work of the DSM Foundation should be sent to media@dsmfoundation.org.uk.